AMN's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.

What the Game's About
Coded Arms is a PSP only franchise which started back in the early days of the handheld's life. The original title was fairly well received by critics but it did suffer from difficult controls. Several years have passed and Konami has released a sequel to the original title. Enter the world of Coded Arms Contagion. Contagion pulls players into a new cybernetic world, where players must use hacking skills and an arsenal of high-powered weapons. Gamers take control of a security agent who enters the world of A.I.D.A, a virtual reality military program. They will have to battle it out throughout this program to prevent cyber-terrorist from taking control and accessing classified military documents.

What's Hot
Konami has thrown in several new additions into this sequel and thankfully one of these is worth checking out. One of the new additions is the upgrade system. Since you have a fairly large arsenal at your disposal, it's nice to know that you can upgrade your equipment throughout the title. Once you get to a save point you'll be able to swap out weapons or be given the choice of upgrading. In order to upgrade armor or equipment you must first use upgrade points. You'll be able to find these scattered throughout the levels of the game. These will allow you to either choose to upgrade your guns or your armor. Each will have its own benefits such as increase fire power or an increase in defense. The game does have a cap on the levels of the upgrades and new slots are opened at predetermined times throughout the game. This helps keep the game challenging but also limits your own customization. Often you'll find yourself with more upgrade points than you can use.

What's Not
Although the game is on a technical standpoint solid, the game is by no means nice to look at. The environments are dull and repetitive. While the guns and animations are overall nicely done they aren't anything that will make you say "Wow," or worth stopping to look at. All the levels look the same and feature the same colors and overall look. Some of the enemies are actually really solid looking but these are a rare breed in the game. Only the big enemies look good whereas the everyday solider looks the same at every second of the game.

Next up is the controls. This isn't the games fault as much as the PSP itself. The game's controls are still stiff and difficult to use. Because of the one analog stick, FPS do not fare well on the PSP when it comes to controls. The game uses the analog stick to move and the face buttons to strafe right, left, and to look up or down. The game does offer several other control schemes but the default controls are the best to use in the end. Although the controls do get the job done, they are far from being solid.

Online is a new feature in Contagion but sadly it isn't utilized well. The online will allow for up to 8 players to compete head-to-head but finding eight players might be hard to come by. Outside of the fact the game has little too no one online currently; the game suffers from some serious lag issues.

Final Word
Although this review may be in a more negative tone, the game is far from being terrible. It just suffers from dull levels, graphics, and overall premise. If you enjoyed the first game then you'll find some enjoyment in this new title, especially with the new upgrade system and maybe even online play. However, if you want a new FPS for your PSP you are better off waiting for something better to be released down the line.